You've Got To Write a Sequel Or Two

EDITOR (spoken)]
You see, Scribbler...

[sung] In this life, one thing counts
On the shelves, large amounts
I'm afraid these don't grow on trees,
You've got to write a sequel or two

You've got to write a sequel or two, boys,
You've got to write a sequel or two.

[WRITERS]
Large amounts don't grow on trees.
You've got to write a sequel or two.

[EDITOR (spoken)]
Let's show Scribbler how it's done, shall we, my dears?

[sung] Why should we break our backs
Stupidly checking facts?
Better get some chapters done.
Better write a sequel or two.

You've got to write a sequel or two, boys,
You've got to write a sequel or two.

[WRITERS]
Why should we all break our backs?
Better write a sequel or two.

[EDITOR (spoken)]
Who says crime doesn't pay?

[sung] Conan Doyle what a fool!
Threw his hero in a pool.
Literature’s fine, if you’ve got the time.
Get out and write a sequel or two.

You've got to write a sequel or two, boys,
You've got to write a sequel or two.

[WRITERS]
Conan Doyle missed his chance.
He had to write a sequel or two.

[EDITOR]
Take a tip from Patterson
He can sit back while it’s done
But I recall, he started small
He had to write a sequel or two.

You've got to write a sequel or two, boys,
You've got to write a sequel or two.

[WRITERS]
We can be like Jim Patterson
If we write a sequel or two.

[EDITOR]
When I see a genre niche,
Both my thumbs start to itch
Only to find some peace of mind
We have to write a sequel or two.

You've got to write a sequel or two, boys
You've got to write a sequel or two.

[WRITERS]
Just to find some peace of mind

[EDITOR AND WRITERS]
We have to write a sequel or two.

Currently Reading: Cider With Rosie and Akenfield

Akenfield by Ronald Blythe

Blurb
This colourful, perceptive portrayal of English country life reverberates with the voices of the village inhabitants, from the reminiscences of survivors of the Great War evoking days gone by, to the concerns of a younger generation of farm-workers and the fascinating and personal recollections of, among others, the local schoolteacher, doctor, blacksmith, saddler, district nurse and magistrate. Providing insights into farming, education, welfare, class, religion and death, Akenfield forms a unique document of a way of life that has, in many ways, disappeared.

Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee

Blurb
Cider with Rosie is a wonderfully vivid memoir of childhood in a remote Cotswold village, a village before electricity or cars, a timeless place on the verge of change. Growing up amongst the fields and woods and characters of the place, Laurie Lee depicts a world that is both immediate and real and belongs to a now-distant past.

Upcoming event 1st June 2013

BSFA AGM

Where?
The City of Westminster Archives Centre
10 St Anne’s Street
London SW1P 2DE

When?
1st of June 2013
The AGM is from 10 till 5 PM

What?
I'm on a panel talking about writing Doctor Who at 10:00 AM and then being interviewed at 14:30 PM

Why?
Why? Why? You ask? Because it's there my friend, because it's there!

Films That I Like: Scrooged

CROSS

We have spent forty million dollars on a live TV show. You guys have got an ad with America's favourite old fart, reading a book, in front of a fireplace! 

(beat)

Now I have to kill all of you.

We continue with my occasional series in which I blog about films I like and the particular aspect of the film that I enjoy. These are not reviews, there is no attempt at objectivity or to create a holistic analysis or in fact any analysis at all. It's just films that I like....

Scrooged

(1988)

Written by Mitch Glazer  & Michael O'Donoghue

Directed by Richard Donner

It has Alfre Woodward in it

Which is a good thing in any movie.

GRACE

He's fired? But it's christmas

CROSS

Thank you, call accounting, stop his bonus.

GRACE

(into phone)

Eliot Laudermilk - code nine.

It has an excellent Danny Elfman Score

He's love of interwining the cheery, the twee and the sinister suit the themes perfectly.

Design and Direction

It's beautifully directed by Richard Donner who gives some of the early Cross scenes a sort of terrifying granduer and moves things along with wit and economy. I'm particularly struck at the use of practical, almost theatrical stage effects used to evoke the supernatural elements. These were more common in the far off days before routine CGI but while the film has access to the state of the art (in 1988) optical effects it doesn't lean on them.Good examples are the arrival of the Ghost of Christmas Present and the use of editing to switch through time periods during the Ghost of Christmas Past sequence.

CROSS

Did our people do that? We're going to get phone calls.

J. Michael Riva's production design is also brilliant in this film, I love the off kilter hospital corridor in the Ghost of Christmas Future sequence and the underground sewer and impromptu tomb that Cross finds himself in earlier on.

Japanese Cover!

Jyo-ou Heika no Majyutu-shi

Wizard of Her Majesty

Boy Nightingale is well Bishōnen ain't he?